Peoria man determined to control his destiny, twin said

Two weeks ago, Ronald U. Cummings moved out of his twin brother’s East Bluff house and hadn’t been seen or heard from since.

That was until Cummings, 51, climbed over a fence Sunday afternoon and leaped into the brown waters of the Illinois River, killing himself.

Donald Cummings, Ronald Cummings’ twin brother, said he already knew his brother, who was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, was dead when a family member came by his home Sunday night to tell him the sad news.

"I woke up Sunday morning at 3 a.m. in bed and, ironically, heard a voice. I don’t hear voices, but the voice told me that Ronald was dead," Donald Cummings said Monday. "I knew Sunday morning that he was going to die that day. I didn’t know how."

Donald Cummings said his brother had been living with him since December, but announced two weeks ago he getting his own apartment. He wouldn’t let family or friends help him.

"He had been doing pretty good," Donald Cummings said. "It was only within the last month he decided not to continue his medication. He subsequently shut everyone down. He shut them out totally."

When Ronald Cummings chose to take his medication he was a kind, compassionate person who enjoyed cooking and listening to gospel music, his brother said.

"He was one of the finest cooks and made excellent ribs," Donald Cummings said.

Ronald Cummings’ head wasn’t always filled with voices, a common symptom of people suffering with schizophrenia.

It was prank pulled by a co-worker 20 years ago that Donald Cummings said plunged his brother’s mental state into a downward spiral that lead him to jump into the river.

"Someone placed some acid (or LSD) into a soda he was drinking and as a result of that he ended up at Zeller," Donald Cummings said. "He freaked out."

Ever since then, Ronald Cummings heard voices, and believed that other people were reading his mind, controlling his thoughts or plotting to harm him.

Medication controlled the symptoms, but every so often Ronald Cummings would opt not take his pills, which landed him in the psychological ward at Methodist Medical Center.

"When he got off his medication he made absolutely no sense to anybody," Donald Cummings said. "He always believed someone was out to get him.

"His mood in the past month was argumentative and got to the point where he wasn’t going to listen to anyone. He was a man who was going to take his own destiny in his own hands. And he did."

A Peoria police officer patrolling along the riverfront spotted Ronald Cummings wearing only a black T-shirt in the field under the Murray Baker Bridge. When the officer got out to talk to him, Ronald Cummings walked toward a playground next to the RiverPlex, turned and smiled at the officer and jumped into the river, witnesses said.

Ronald Cummings’ body was found 15 feet away from the wall he leapt from by members of the Peoria Fire Department’s dive team. He drowned, according to preliminary autopsy results.

"I think he made that choice to leap, whatever forces were there, he wouldn’t have done anything to save himself," said Donald Cummings when asked if his brother knew how to swim. "I think maybe he was tired of battling it. To him, the pain was too great. He just had forces that were greater than he and he could never overcome them.

"That’s why he smiled because to him it was over. … I hope it was everything he wanted it to be."